Holy. fucking. shit.

Sucks. My condolences to his family, and to my father, who fucking loved Meet the Press and Russert. I can't believe this happened right before the election.

Holy crap. Whatever you think of the guy, he has been one of the biggest players in mainstream news in the past couple decades. Definitely shocking news.

FUCK!!! That sucks royally!! My Sunday mornings are now totallly fucked up. And if NBC has someone like Tucker Carlson replace him, well NBC can go fuck themselves.

The Clinton's did it.

I'm with y'all. Shit. I was looking forward to watching Mr. Russert's election night coverage, and his beeming face when NBC calls it for Obama. RIP, sir.

Oh!

Remember just a couple of months ago, some douchebag interviewing him suggested that his father was dead, but he wasn't? Now his father has to bury his son.

I liked Russert; by the standards of TV news guys, he was as good as it gets: smart, well-steeped in his subject, and maybe most-importantly for the medium very, very quick on his feet. He's famous for the whiteboard, of course, but the thing that made the whiteboard great was the way he used it to distill a ton of info into a quick snapshot that we could grasp in an instant. That's hard to do. It's POSSIBLE to do something like that on a computer, but tellingly no one ever did. He was great on election nights. I also liked that he stuck with what he was good at, never going the heroic (and useless) anchor route like so many of his peers like the insufferable Wolf Blitzer.

And damn, 58 is young. My condolences to his family.

Russert couldn’t be the smartest kid in the room if he was all alone. Whereas Hillary is usually the smartest on in the room in a crowd. But little blowhards like Russert don’t like smart woman. Being in the same room with a smart woman makes their wee-wees wither.

Lot’s of men have that problem. (present company excluded of course.) Viva Viagra!

I'm sorry he's dead but I'm glad he's off the air.

Ditto what #1 said. :o

While some of his moments were cringe-worthy (cf. any MTP with Matalin-Carville), this is sad and it will be interesting to see who replaces him.

Will Chuck Todd ascend? He seems too green to me...

I don't know why, but when I heard this, the first name to pop into my head as his replacement on Meet the Press was....

Gary Busey

That's tragic. I love Meet the Press.

Tim Russert talked about substantive issues and was good for the media and good for the country.

oh shit. i often found his style annoying, but this is unpleasantly shocking.

i imagine david gregory will take over at mtp? please not chris matthews. please.

This makes me really sad. Tim Russert, while not perfect, was definitely one of the more smart and interesting figures in political media. He always made me think and I will miss him dearly on Sunday mornings.

Now that the shock has faded: I feel just awful for this guy's family (especially his dad... how hard must it be to have to bury your own child?). And for us... my household was really looking forward to his general election campaign coverage.

Oh my god. And just when Stephanopoulos has been acting unforgivably douchey. I am sincerely distressed.

Big blow to NBC.

Chris Matthews did it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/magazine/13matthews-t.html

...some douchebag interviewing him suggested that his father was dead...

Are you being coy, Fnarf, or don't you remember that the douchebag was Terry McAuliffe?

he'd just come back from a long overseas flight.

blood clot?

Damn @5 I just got off the phone with a friend in Chicago who said the same thing.

Annoyingly disappointing man with power. Sorry he's dead.

i think david gregory or andrea mitchell will step in during the interim and then one of them will eventually take it permanently.

@8:

suck my cock, you cunt-faced trollop.

No, Keshmeshi, I just forgot. All the douchebags look alike to me. I gotta give McAuliffe credit for his last-night-of-the-campaign appearance on Stewart, where he looked completely bugged out on meth, and was obviously admitting the obvious with his crazy eyes and grinning mouth while he was denying it with his words. A comedy performance for the ages. I suspect he's not that bad a guy when he's not in impossible situations.

Rest in peace, Mr. Russert. Love him or hate him, you have to admit he was damn good at what he did.

@ Hernandez,

I know! Now who’s gonna ask Bush Administration officials ridiculous, fact-free, soft-ball, Republican party propagandist questions thinly disguised as “news,” while providing them an open platform for their lies and non-denials?

This is sad. I liked him.

I'm not superstitious or anything, but it is Friday the 13th. ...Seriously, it's sad. And to happen Father's Day weekend makes it worse for his loved ones. ...I don't know what caused it, but everyone needs to have a balanced diet and exercise.

dirt nap dirt nap Tim's taking a dirt nap. good!

What #24 said.

I am actually crying about this. I loved Tim Russert and looked forward to Sunday mornings. I even downloaded all his interviews with Barack, Hillary, and McCain this season and watch them often.

He was the real "fair and balanced" reporter.

Condolences.

Learning moment: Men often die in 50's if overweight, no exercise, workaholic.
Expect Colbert, Will, Carville to last longer; Rush....not so much.

@25,

You have much greater fortitude than I. I think I stopped watching that interview 30 seconds in.

One of the sad things (among many) is, that in the next few coming weeks, we won't get to hear Tim say to John McCain on Meet the Press: "Senator, here you are on the Today Show saying it's not important when we withdraw troops from Iraq. Roll the tape."

@26 -- I didn't think he was very damn good at what he did, though he did have a pleasant voice. See "The Unbearable Inanity of Tim Russert":

http://www2.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0712.yglesias.html

So sad. Sure MSNBC employs a brigade of sexist commentators, but he wasn't necessarily one of them. He was the only one who actually gave Clinton credit for her amazing concession speech.

How incredibly insensitive some of these posters are being. You're not funny, you're not cute, you instead are embarrassing yourself and SLOG. Have a little class.

elswinger @ 31,

All I remember is Dick Cheney and Condi Rice going on Meet the Press and freely saying things like “Nigerian yellowcake,” “mushroom cloud” and “greeted as liberators” without question, and basically using MTP as their own personal propaganda platform. Whenever they had fresh lies to sell the public, Meet the Press was always the first stop on the Deception Express.

Didn’t he also do that insidious and despicable interview where Bush II declared himself a “war president?” It really raised the bar on Pravda level ass-kissing.

Russert always made me think of the Soviet newscaster from Airplane with the cocked gun to his head that announces
“four-alarm fire in downtown Moscow clears way for glorious new tractor factory.”

Did Russert have better moments? What’d I miss?

Dude needed to relax more often!

@ 37: I agree with your recollections. However, his "better moment" came during Hurricane Katrina, when he suddenly (apparently) remembered that his catholic faith required him to have a concern for society's remaindered. I'll never forget the outrage in his voice as he grilled Bush's henchmen about their spectacular failures in NO. That seemed to be a turning point for him about this administration (a few years too late as it may have been)...

@36: You came to Slog looking for class? You're new here, huh?

I can't believe it. How unexpected and tragic.

I watched his show most Sundays since high school, when a teacher required us to and I discovered how interesting it was. He rarely let politicians get away with anything, and was never partisan-- he was hard on everyone. I'm going to wish he was still here hardest during this summer's debates, but right now is a close second.

This is a sad day. I especially loved when he threw people's words back in their faces. I knew it was love during an interview with Dick Gephardt many years ago. I will miss him and his white board during this election cycle and beyond. Sunday mornings will not be the same. My heart goes out to his family.

OMG. I was stunned when I learned about Russert's death.
Yeah, there were several times while watching MTP (or thanks to Mike Malloy, I affectionately call "Press the Meat") I'd yell at the TV and call him a tool. But there have been some intense moments, like when he interviewed Colin Powell, when one of Powell's aides swung the camara away when Russert's questions were getting hairy. Russert insisted the camera to go back on Powell, that the interview wasn't over.
I am sure we'll learn more about Mr. Russert's health as this story unfolds. He may have had a clean bill of health, for all we know. A sudden catastrophic health event is possible with anyone. We shall see...

#37 It's too bad you only watched the one episode and you judged Tim on that one episode. At the time no reporter was questioning the government's lies, which is a shame because they needed to. I'm sorry Tim was no different. He has admitted that he dropped the ball. he has been a lot tougher on Dick and Condi when they've been on MTP.

What made Tim different, and better than his peers, like Chris Matthews or Bill O'Reilly, is that Tim didn't talk over or shout at his guests. He let people speak their peace then he made them back it up.

No reporter is going to ask every question that you wish they would ask. They have a time limit. A 60 minute program only has 44 minutes (the rest of the time is commercials). Tim did as much as he could in the time he had.

It's fine if you didn't respect or like Tim, but give us a place for those who did like and respect him to morn.

Do you go to funerals and yell nasty shit to the mourners?

I don't want to be disrespectful, and I feel sad for his family, but he's being so widely lauded, and he was really so bad at what he did, that I think another side needs to be included.

Given his powerful position, he really did suck. He thought politics was just a gotcha game, and his one interesting notion was having the idea to confront people with their words. But he hadn't a clue how to follow up or engage in real back and forth argument against anyone the least bit accomplished at it. They just blithely turned him aside, and the big fool went where they led. It's no wonder the Bush administration found him such a perfect propaganda outlet.

I wouldn't be posting this if he hadn't become such a huge and influential part of our political discourse, but given the adoration he's receiving, I think another side needs to be presented. I'd hate for young journalists to think he's so obviously a model to be emulated.

elswinger @ 44,

Ok, it wasn't one episode. This was a pattern of enabling behavior that went on for at least five years until the general public had already turned decisively against the Bushbots.

Yes, you can mourn the man, but you should also face the fact that he was culpable for spreading some of the most outrageous political lies in this country's history.

Imperfect, yes, but who is not? I thought he was a good interviewer. Fair. Impartial. A strong journalist who respected his guests and dug for the truth.

Too, bad. r.i.p.

Ditto what @9 said.

Andrew, we can agree to disagree. In the end we will both vote for Obama, right?

I have never seen more classless a**holes in one place. He was brilliant journalist, who was one of the best interviewers I have ever seen. The Bush Administration used 9/11 to highjack the press in this country. Almost all reporters work for a corporation, if you wanted to keep your job you better not say something perceived as un-american. I hope the crimes perpetrated by Bush and Co. encourage the next generation of journalist to fight for the truth and demand answers as Tim Russert did every Sunday.

Brian Boru wrote, "I have never seen more classless a**holes in one place. He was brilliant journalist"

What fucking planet are you from?? Russert was a hack journalist. Read Terry's post above. It is spot on. He was an average journalist with an above average television personality. The way his hack peers canonized him you would have thought the fucking pope died...

Brian Boru wrote, "I have never seen more classless a**holes in one place. He was brilliant journalist"

What fucking planet are you from?? Russert was a hack journalist. Read Terry's post above. It is spot on. He was an average journalist with an above average television personality. The way his hack peers canonized him you would have thought Edward R. fucking Murrow died...

The good always leave us too soon... I guess Foxnews and it's broadcasters like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly and rest of them on that paid for by the same one's that got that current thing in the white house are going to be here for a long, long, looooong time!.